Original “Dragon Tattoo” Director Slams Hollywood Version

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The original "Dragon Tattoo" director has criticized the American version.

The director of the Swedish film “The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo” has a message for Hollywood: why mess up a good thing?

In an interview on the website Word & Film, filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev criticized the planned English-language version of the film based on Swedish author Steig Larsson’s best-selling crime thriller.

“Even in Hollywood there seems to be a kind of anger about the remake, like, ‘Why would they remake something when they can just go see the original?’” he said. “Everybody who loves film will go see the original one."

Oplev, whose third film in the Millennium trilogy is currently out in theaters globally, said he hadn’t been consulted about director David Fincher’s project, which is expected out next December, according to E! News.

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But there was no way it could top his work, Oplev predicted.

“It’s like, what do you want to see, the French version of 'La Femme Nikita' or the American one?” he said.

Opelv did not mention by name Rooney Mara, who is set to star as the Hollywood film’s strong-willed computer hacker protagonist Lisbeth Salander.

Cast Aside: Actors Who Almost Had the Part

But he said Hollywood's Salander could never “compete” with the legacy of Swedish actress Noomi Rapace.

“The only thing that’s annoying to me is that the Sony PR machine is trying to make their Lisbeth Salander the lead Lisbeth Salander,” Oplev told Word & Film. “That’s highly unfair because Noomi has captured this part and it should always be all her.”